Linsanity! Part 3: Jeremy’s Workout, Life in the NBA D-League & the Curious Case of Steve Novak

Yes, I admit it. I am basically giving this blog over to Jeremy Lin. Having said that, some great stuff to follow. First, a video of his summer workout back when he was with the Warriors. No wonder the dude is destroying the NBA at present…

Even during his short Knicks tenure, which began due to a depleted backcourt, he was given a reminder of how tenuous his roster position was. Assigned to the (Erie) BayHawks for six days, he met the team at the hotel at 6:30 a.m. to begin a road trip to Maine. The players and coaches packed into two vans, rode two and a half hours to Pittsburgh, hopped a flight to JFK in New York, connected to Maine and landed that night.

“The flights were JetBlue so at least there was a TV option,” coach Jay Larranaga says. “Jeremy never complained.”

So there you have it. Life in the d-league.

Lastly, many have noticed how well Jeremy Lin is playing. Far fewer have noticed the crazy numbers that Steve Novak, three-point specialist, has been putting up during the last five games (since Lin took over). I haven’t yet seen a journalist take this on (though it’s a worthy story), but here’s what the ESPN fantasy watch says about Novak:

In the past four games, Novak has averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 boards and four three-pointers per game. We still don’t know what will happen to Novak’s minutes once Amar’e Stoudemire (personal reasons) returns, but he’s putting up a pretty good case to remain a regular part of Knicks’ rotation.

Why is this interesting? Because Novak is an NBA journeyman who has played for five teams in seven years. He’s bouncing from team to team, barely making the cut. And yet when paired with Lin, who excels at penetrating and kicking the ball out to open shooters, he’s suddenly tripled his career average in points during the last five games. That is entirely due to a point guard who understands how to play the game and who makes others better. That, by the way, is the opposite of how Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks’ megastars, play the game. What a beautiful picture of how salvation impacts everyday life.

Suddenly, Steve Novak is experiencing a career renaissance of the kind he’s never had and probably never thought he would have. Who knows how long this will last–but it’s worth pointing out how Lin’s performance has affected others for the better even in this short spell.

There’s a principle there for us: we should seek to identify people in our churches who “make others better,” who through the power of the Spirit bring exponential blessing to those in need of Christ’s grace. That is, in a nutshell, what a Christian should be (1 Thessalonians 5:11), for that is surely who Christ is for us.

It’s nice to get little common-grace pictures of that from the world around us.